It wasn’t extreme dieting. There was no starvation. No short-term fixes that last two weeks before everything comes back.
When I lost 35 kilograms, I realized one thing — the body doesn’t respond to dramatic changes, it responds to consistency. To habits you do every single day, almost automatically, without thinking.
In this post, I’m sharing the exact six habits that changed my body. They’re not complicated. But they work.
1. Breakfast One to One and a Half Hours After Waking Up
One of the first things I changed was when I eat breakfast.
Most people either skip breakfast entirely or eat it the moment they get out of bed. Neither is optimal. When you eat one to one and a half hours after waking up, you give your body time to naturally wake up and regulate cortisol — the hormone that’s naturally elevated in the morning. Once cortisol starts to drop, that’s the right time for your first meal.
The result is stable energy levels throughout the entire morning, without blood sugar spikes and without that feeling of being hungry again an hour after eating.
2. Water — More Than You Think You Need
I know this sounds obvious. But the majority of people struggling with their weight aren’t drinking even a third of the water they actually need.
The reason water matters so much for weight loss isn’t just “hydration” in some abstract sense. The body is largely made of water, and when it’s properly hydrated, it metabolizes food more efficiently. On top of that, water creates a sense of fullness — many times when you think you’re hungry, you’re actually thirsty.
A practical rule: divide your body weight in kilograms by 30 — that’s your minimum daily water intake in liters.
3. Regular Physical Activity
This one is non-negotiable.
Physical activity is mandatory for anyone who wants to permanently change their body — unless you work a physically demanding job that involves constant movement throughout the entire day. Only in that case can you get by without additional exercise.
For everyone else — desk job, working from home, mostly sedentary day — regular movement isn’t optional, it’s the foundation. It doesn’t have to be the gym. It can be walking, cycling, swimming. But it has to be consistent.
4. More Smaller Meals Spread Throughout the Day
Instead of one or two large meals, spread your food across several smaller ones throughout the day.
The reason is simple — the body processes smaller amounts of food better at one time. When you eat infrequently and in large quantities, blood sugar spikes dramatically then crashes, hunger becomes uncontrollable, and it’s much harder to stay in a caloric deficit. Smaller, more frequent meals keep energy stable and hunger in check.
This is especially important for people who are used to skipping meals during the day and then eating everything at once in the evening — that pattern directly sabotages weight loss.
5. Sleep
There is no more underrated factor in weight loss than sleep.
When you don’t sleep enough, your body produces more ghrelin — the hunger hormone — and less leptin — the satiety hormone. In practical terms: being sleep-deprived makes you hungrier and makes it harder to feel full. On top of that, lack of sleep increases cortisol, which directly affects fat accumulation, especially around the stomach.
Seven to eight hours of quality sleep isn’t a luxury — it’s part of the transformation process, just as much as training and nutrition.
6. Proper Planning — The Most Important of All
Out of all six habits, this one is the most important.
All the previous habits — breakfast, water, activity, meals, sleep — require planning. Without it, the day gets away from you and the habits fall apart. With it, they become automatic.
Planning means prioritizing your physiological needs. It means that before the day begins, you know when you’ll eat, what you’ll eat, when you’ll move, and when you’ll go to sleep. It sounds rigid, but in practice that structure creates freedom — you no longer spend energy on decisions, your body knows what’s coming.
This is the difference between those who start a transformation and those who finish it.
The Bottom Line
35 kilograms didn’t disappear because of some secret. They disappeared because of six habits I practiced consistently, day after day.
Breakfast at the right time. Enough water. Regular activity. Smaller meals spread throughout the day. Quality sleep. And a plan that holds it all together.
If you need help fitting these habits into your life and building a plan that actually works, reach out here.
Author: Momir Bogdanović — Online Fitness Coach
